First-Time Homeowner Loves New Habitat HomeWith a home dedication done Saturday for a house built by Habitat for Humanity at the intersection of Ellsworth and Lyon streets, Missy Francis became a first-time homeowner.
Ben Logan, executive director of Habitat for Humanity of Kosciusko County, said the dedication was also a celebration. People were celebrating Saturday, as well as dedicating the house to God and what He provided.
Ground was broken in March, so Logan said it took about six months to build the house, which is about three months less than a typical Habitat build. It was one of the most successful builds Habitat has done, he said.
However, Logan said the house is a means to an end. It is about who is in the house. The real impact comes after the home dedication. Suddenly, the home payments are affordable and don’t continually increase. It’s such a huge impact and a ripple into the community and it’s something to celebrate.
There were over 130 people and organizations that helped Habitat afford the lumber and the rest of the materials to build the house, Logan said. He thanked the different sponsors, which included NIPSCO, St. Anne’s Episcopal Church, Warsaw Community Church and First United Methodist Church of Warsaw. Being on the tail end of COVID, he said people came out to volunteer. Habitat also had a great source of funding. When Habitat needed to buy materials, they were able to buy it.
Logan said it took over 1,300 hours to build the home. The land itself was donated by the Salvation Army and they saw the need for more housing and donated the land to do so.
Envoy Ken Locke said the Salvation Army is in the process of donating another piece of land to Habitat. He said he’s aware there’s a struggle to find lots within the city limits and urged others to consider donating land to Habitat within the city limits.
Logan said they are sort of bottlenecked when it comes to land. Finding volunteers and funding is the easy part. Finding land is one of the biggest issues.
Francis was handed the keys to the home during the dedication. A storage container was on the property with a big portion of her belongings. She said she is expecting to start to be able to move everything in by Wednesday.
Francis started working with Locke with the Salvation Army’s Pathway to Hope program about 10 years ago. Francis said she believed her youngest son was 15 or 16 when she started in the Habitat program and he’s 22 now.
She said the program is not a first-come, first-served situation. Francis thought she was up for a Habitat home last year, but there was a family that was living in a home with mold and that family got a Habitat home last year.
Saturday, Francis said she loves everything about the house. She’s now closer to work. She’s also near train tracks and her grandson Oliver is obsessed with trains.
She loved working with the volunteers and enjoyed helping in building the house. She thinks there’s much more respect in the house knowing she built it, even though she always had respect for the other places she lived. She never knew how much went into building a house.
